PTSD - The Positive Bit

[louisa]

Been having a really bad time for a long while so haven't posted or been on the forum for a while, but despite the drawbacks and the bad side of PTSD - i sometimes feel that it has given me a valuable perspective on life, a sensitivity that maybe i wouldn't have developed otherwise (tho i don't mean that i wasn't sensitive b4 - this is something extra) Does anyone else know what i mean?

 

[louisa]

Or have i just gone completely bonkers?

 

[Cin]

Louisa, I think you are right.

As a carer and reading the things other carers say, our sufferers are the most amazing people when well, people that makes us feel like we have never felt before. I definitely think that has something to do with PTSD or even trauma and suffering.

I don't know, maybe I'm completely bonkers too.

 

[AdamAnt]

The width and depth of the soul is grown by hardship. You guys are warriors

 

[Deleted member 5760]

Thank you to everyone - both carers and sufferers who added to this thread..

It means a lot

-Jen :)

 

[louisa]

Hi

And thanx from me too.

Best wishes to everyone, Louisa

 

[just me here]

Sorry, but I find no positive aspects to a diagnosis of PTSD. Yeah, I think I am still capable of doing some creative, thoughtful, insiteful things. Alot of us are, alot of us aren't. Being overly sensitive to triggers and having a history of traumatic experiences that all add up to being impaired socially, mentally, even physically because of it is not the source of my creativity and thoughtfulness and insite.

PTSD diagnosis is based on impairment, not enhancement.

Some "normal" people don't have an ounce of thoughtfulness or sensitivity in their soul. Would you wish PTSD on them so they could be a better person?

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

I like that I can hear better. There was a study done that people with PTSD can hear better then people without it, makes sense...

But to be very honest, I can't imagine my life without PTSD. I guess its like...being used to it?

 

[anni]

I think the person who started this has a very good point, which has been discussed elsewhere at various times. Somewhere recently I read a member alluding to this concept, too although cannot remember who or where. It's completely true-although not a professional I absolutely do feel that along with the intrusive, painful manifestations some of the rewiring seems to have also been in the direction of SOMETHING postive. or at least can be perceived as such. Am too fuzzy at the moment to express things properly, but just feel in general that the added sensitivity can mean we tend to be just plain kinder than the norm. Certainly, there are tons of kind, good people sans PTSD but from what I've seen, I'd have to bet that person to person, in some kind of statistic, 'we' would skew the numbers, if you know what I mean.

I didn't know that study, Ayesha! Interesting, isn't it? Must look that up when the fog clears here. :) Thank you!

 

[seedling]

Just me here - well, maybe there are a few people............mmmmmmmmmmm

I think of it right now as being changed by PTSD and there are things that I realize/understand that I never would have before. People and situations that I can now see more clearly and empathize with that I couldn't before. I'm still too hurt (see the first comment I made!) to really think of it as anything I couldn't have lived without given everything else.

But, here I am and if I get something positive in the change it's made in me, then I better make the most of it.

 

[just me here]

Sorry, but I just can't buy into the idea that suffering makes you stronger, maybe more experienced at suffering and indifferent to things other less experienced sufferers would get hit hard by, but I wouldn't call that an improvement. I just don't think this PTSD thing enhances my existance one little bit.

 

[Tinyflame]

Well just me here, I for one can say you seem to have a far more pround understanding of human nature than most people in general, and are not afraid to speak the truth, and take the time here to help others by posting. So for whatever reasons, that seems so; that's not 'common'. Not likely you would be able to tell if you had a greater understanding when it is the only one you 'know' and you can't compare it to a limited understanding, but I am suspecting that encountering people who don't understand or are or have been judgmental (to you and otherwise, as you have said), makes me aware that you are likely not to be and do not assume to draw the conclusions they do. That certainly is an invaluable gift to others who are now in the position you have been in. That is all I know.